Shares of Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) jumped by as much as 20.7% in pre-market trading Wednesday morning. If this sizable pre-market move holds, the company's shares will easily print a new all-time high today.
The spark? Novavax's stock is getting yet another boost from its closely watched COVID-19 vaccine candidate known as NVX-CoV2373. Specifically, the biotech reported yesterday that every patient in the first portion of this ongoing phase 1/2 trial exhibited anti-spike IgG antibodies after only a single dose. After a second dose, every patient in the study also developed wild-type virus neutralizing antibody responses to this virus.
While Novavax is a few months behind the leaders in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, this early stage data suggests that the company might have a best-in-class product. That's a big deal because a top-tier COVID-19 vaccine -- sold at only a modest profit margin -- could haul in some truly staggering sales figures (greater than $13 billion annually).